An insomiac's guide to sleeping soundly

Sleep - love it or loathe it, it's way more important than we tend to think. For some of us, a restful night's snoozing comes naturally, but for others it can feel like a minefield. Recently, whilst reading a Women's Health article on 'clean sleep', I was inspired to start paying more attention to my own habits.

As someone who has dealt with insomnia in the past, I know all too well how important sleep really is. It's definitely one of those things that you only realise are important when they're gone. Back when my sleeping problems were at their worst, I did a great deal of research into how to deal with the issue, and eventually did manage to improve my sleep quality massively. It took time and effort, but through the methods that follow, I went from getting around 4 hours of sleep (on a good day) to peacefully sleeping for 7 or more hours most nights. I've listed my methods in reverse order of their usefulness (in my opinion), so if you want to try a few but not all of them, I'd start with the ones at the bottom.

5. Self-hypnosis

Ok, I'll admit this does seem a bit out-there, and a few years ago I would've laughed at this suggestion too. Having said that, a few years ago I didn't really understand hypnosis. Ultimately, despite its connotations, hypnosis is not much more than a very deep state of relaxation. Whilst having hypnotherapy for a phobia, I was taught how to carry out self-hypnosis, and to this day it remains my tool of choice when I'm either very stressed or struggling to sleep. I would really recommend going in with an open mind and researching this further if you're having issues with with relaxation.

4. Prepare for the morning

If there's one thing that's bound to make sleeping more difficult, it's worrying about the million things you need to do in the morning. I find it so useful to make sure I'm fully prepared in advance. I'm not a morning person at all, so as well as aiding my sleep, it makes for a much less stressful morning. Make a list of the things you tend to worry about most in the mornings; this could be what to wear, what to have for breakfast or things to remember for work. Try to prepare as much as possible before going to sleep - write reminders, prepare breakfast in advance etc.

3. Bath/shower at night

Whether it's best to shower in the morning or at night has always been up for debate. Of course, there's arguments for each side, however if you're a troublesome sleeper I would argue the night-time option is more beneficial. Personally, a relaxing bath before bed really settles me down and prepares me for sleep. I always prefer a bath, but I don't think the method is actually that important, just go for whichever suits you. It's definitely the act of washing off the day and feeling fresh before bed that helps me snooze more soundly.

2. Declutter

The space in which you sleep is way more important than you may realise. For me at least, messy room = messy mind, 100%. It's quite a hard thing to describe, but it's as though all that clutter in the room represents the jumble of thoughts in my mind. Linking in to point 4, clutter can also cause stress more practically; you're more likely to be kept awake worrying where something is if your space isn't organised.

1. Technology cleanse

If I had to choose which technique alone is best when it comes to getting more quality sleep, I would go for this one every time. As far as I'm concerned, technology (especially social media) before bed is almost always a terrible idea. There's loads of opinions out there on exactly how long before bed you should put the tech down, but I try to stick to an hour, or even half an hour; I think this is an effective yet doable time-scale.

In conjunction with these methods, try to keep your sleep schedule pretty regular. It's also really useful to figure out roughly how many hours of sleep you need per night; both too little and too much can have a detrimental effect. Hopefully some of these methods can be useful, but remember that if you're really struggling with you sleeping it's important to go to your GP. Problems with sleep aren't always, but can be a result of an underlying condition like depression or anxiety.

Sweet dreams!

5 ways to become a 'morning person'

Presumably if you're reading this then like me, you're not a what is typically described as a 'morning person'. Let's be honest though, do these people who naturally leap out of bed in the morning, bright-eyed and ready to face the day even exist? I don't know about you but I've certainly never met one! However, I do believe that it is absolutely possible to train your mind and body to make mornings much more pleasant and productive. Up until revamping my approach around 6 months ago, I was the polar opposite of a 'morning person'. My 'routine' would usually go something like this:

7.30am - Alarm goes off. Hit snooze and think about how cold my room is and how much I hate leaving my bed.

7.38am - Alarm goes off again. Hit snooze again.

7.46am - Alarm goes off again. Turn alarm off completely.

8.00am - Scroll through social media.

8.30am - Shit, I fell back asleep with my phone in my hand. Scramble out of bed in a panic, quickly brush teeth and get dressed - no time for luxuries such as breakfast, applying makeup or even brushing hair.

8.40am - Run around the house aimlessly (and frustratingly, usually up and down the stairs around 5 times) looking for something/multiple things I need but can't find.

8.50am - Set off for college late, usually feeling stressed, unprepared and ugly.

Clearly, this isn't an ideal way to start the day. However, it is possible to completely turn around those stressful mornings. Here are 5 totally do-able changes that have helped me, and can hopefully be useful for you, too:

1) Prepare the night before

If, like me, you tend to be a bit grouchy in the morning, then you want to be avoiding the potential frustration of not being able to find anything you need. Decide what you're going to wear and either lay it out ready or just make sure you know where it is. If you're going to school or college, pack your bag and put out any folders you need the night before. Preparing breakfast the night before is also really helpful. I have the same oat-based breakfast every morning and it's so amazing! I'll make sure to share the recipe for this in a post sometime, as it's so cheap to make and literally takes 2 minutes every night. Having breakfast done and ready to eat straight away definitely gives me something to look forward to!

2) Set your alarm earlier

I mean, this is an obvious one, but it's useless if you don't learn to respond to your alarm correctly. You need to try different strategies and figure out a method that works best for you. A lot of people suggest putting your phone or alarm at the other side of the room; the idea being that you have to get out of bed to switch it off. Personally, I prefer a gentler approach. If I have to leave the house at 8.45am, as I often do, I set my alarm for 6.45am. In fact, whatever time I have to leave by, I just set my alarm for 2 hours beforehand. This may seem excessive, but I would much rather get up in good time and have a slow-paced, leisurely start to the day. So say my alarm goes off at 6.45am, I don't actually get up then, and I like that because it makes me dread my alarm less. After this, I give myself half an hour to wake up properly and just relax in bed. I often scroll through social media at this time which is probably a bad habit, but it definitely wakes up my brain. At 7.15am I get up, and despite having spent half an hour lounging around, I still half an hour and a half to get ready. I always have an alarm set for 7.15am, just in case I were to fall asleep again in that half an hour.

3) Start the day with water

This is absolutely life-changing. I have no idea why it makes you feel so good, but starting the day by chugging a load of water makes you feel so refreshed and energized. When I was rushing around, I didn't drink anything and was left feeling groggy, hungry and headachy by mid-morning. Nowadays, the first thing I do when I get up is drink half a litre (or a normal sized water bottle) of water. In fact, I love water so much that I dedicated a whole blog post to it back in January.

4) Get to bed at a good time

Another obvious but very effective one. For a few years I was an insomniac and would be forced to function on about 3 hours of sleep per night. This led me to believe I didn't need much sleep, because being constantly tired became the norm. I think this may be the case for a lot of people. However, it's only since regaining a healthy relationship with sleep that I've realised I actually need much more than I used to believe. Personally, I find the right amount of sleep time is 9-10 hours per day; any less I wake up tired and any more I wake up groggy and lethargic. Everybody has an ideal number of hours they should be sleeping for, although it varies from person to person. If you haven't already, it's definitely something worth figuring out; too little or too much sleep can really make your days (particularly the mornings) tougher.

5) Write a to-do list

It's easy to feel a bit overwhelmed in the morning, especially if you know you have loads to do during the day. One thing that I find really sets me up for a good day is writing a to-do list in my planner. It doesn't have to be detailed, but there's nothing like getting everything out of your head and into a list to stop it feeling like such a huge task. I don't know why this works - it just does. I think it sort of 'un-muddles' your head a bit, making everything seem clearer and more doable.

After learning to incorporate these 5 things into my life, I've noticed a remarkable change in my views towards the morning. Nowadays, I barely ever have terribly long lie-ins as I simply don't feel the need to anymore. However impossible I thought it would be, mornings are no longer the enemy! All it takes is a few small changes - it doesn't have to be anything drastic - and you too could build a structured and relaxed routine which works for you. I guarantee it will have a knock-on effect and start to improve many areas in your life. As an example, here's what my morning routine looks like now;

6.45am - Alarm goes off. Scroll through social media and slowly wake up.

7.15am - Second alarm goes off. Get up, drink half a litre of water.

7.30am - Eat breakfast with a cup of tea.

8.55am - Write to-do list for the day in planner.

8.10am - Get dressed and sort out hair and makeup.

8.35am - Get everything together that I need e.g. folders, planner etc.

8.45am - Leave the house, calm and ready for the day ahead.

The importance of having a relaxed and productive plan for the morning is underrated; I think we often don't realise how much the quality of our entire day rests on the way we utilise those first few hours. I guess the phrase 'got out of the wrong side of the bed' has a bit of a deeper meaning. If a morning has been stressful or rushed, it easily has the power to frustrate us for the rest of the day! This is why I believe it's so important to take control of those mornings, so they can no longer control us.

What is health?

Nowadays more than ever, we see the word 'health' banded around everywhere. 20 years ago it was much simpler; eat your 5 a day, visit the dentist every 6 months, do a bit of exercise and that was about it. However recently, the concept of health is becoming more confusing by the day. Surrounded by conflicting studies regarding what is and isn't good for us, and the millions of health related hashtags, from #eatclean to #vegan to #mindbodysoul. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels a little overwhelmed by it all.

But what actually is health? I think nowadays, the definition is less of a fixed ideal and more of a personal opinion. After a great deal of pondering over this question, I have come up with my personal definition of what healthy looks like. I will always hold onto the belief that 'health' is quite simply, an even balance of wellbeing in both mind and body. It's quite easy to think of the word health and put it all down to physical components; what we eat, how much we exercise and so on, but I don't think it's quite that simple. My reasoning for coming to this conclusion comes down to my most solid belief that the body is much more reliant on the mind than we're led to believe, and vice versa. One of these components cannot be in complete peace without the wellbeing of the other.

For example, if you were to line up 10 people in order of physical fitness, it would be easy to simply assume that the fittest person is the most healthy. This may well be the case. However, what if this person is also unhappy? What if they live their life beating themselves up whenever they make an unhealthy food choice? What if the reason they work out so much is because they have low self-esteem, or body image issues? I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone who is physically fit and healthy deals with these issues, this is simply a hypothetical example. If that person, who on the surface appears to be very healthy, does not also have a healthy mind, then are they really as healthy as they appear to be? Personally, I would argue not. I would argue that someone who lives a reasonably active lifestyle and eats healthily a good proportion of the time, but doesn't feel guilty about treating themselves to a biscuit or two with their cup of tea or a takeaway every now and then, is probably more healthy overall. That balance of a having a forgiving attitude towards yourself mentally, whilst also taking reasonably good care of you body is, I believe, a very healthy approach.

The reason I describe my definition of health as a balance between mind and body, is because I think they key is to put similar amounts of effort into working on each. Each individual will differ in how much energy they need to focus on each; but regardless of personal proportions, I think focusing TOO much energy on either of these areas can be detrimental to health, rather than beneficial. Focusing solely on physical health may be damaging to mental health, as it can cause temptations, guilt or negative body image, for example. On the flipside, if you're only focusing your time on caring for your mental health, your physical health may decline. A decline in physical health will likely drag your mental health down further, causing a vicious cycle. I know for me, if I'm not looking after myself both physically and mentally, my overall wellbeing completely crumbles.

I came to my definition of health through my own learning curve. For many years I really struggled to keep myself happy and healthy, and I'm sure it's because I was not taking a holistic enough approach. At times I focused completely on my mental health, and thus my physical health suffered. On the flipside, there have been times when I've believed that taking care of my physical health was the key to my overall wellbeing, and this was another mistake. At my lightest weight, and at the point I probably physically looked the 'healthiest' I'd ever been, I actually wasn't, because my life was fuelled by guilt and constant worry over how I looked.

In a nutshell, everyone's definition of healthy is different, but I think it's important to figure out what your personal definition is. From my point of view, it's all about balance and loving yourself. Love yourself by working out a few days a week and eating your veggies, but also love yourself by having that amazing looking cake or pizza, or taking a day off when you're ill. Love your body and your mind, and don't let one overshadow the other. Eventually you will find your perfect balance.

Bootea teatox: Results and review

When you think of Bootea, the first thing that comes to mind is glamourous celebrity endorsements and images of smiling, fit young women holding up their tea with a huge smile on their face. But does it really live up to the hype? I decided to find out, and at the end of December ordered myself a 28 day Bootea teatox, ready to use throughout January.

Bootea is one of the many 'teatox' brands, which are essentially supposed to be a natural aid to weight loss, when used in conjunction with a healthy diet. The 28 day teatox consists of 28 morning teabags (one for each day) and 14 bedtime teabags (one for every other night).

The first thing I'm going to mention is the taste, as I think this is something a lot of people worry about before buying the product. Personally, I didn't mind it at all. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't completely my cup of tea (no pun intended), but it wasn't unpleasant. The morning tea is really just a green tea with some added ingredients, which make it taste a bit more 'perfume-y' if that makes sense. The bedtime tea just tastes like normal peppermint tea; this was my least favourite of the two but I think that was just personal taste. My only real complaint would be that there was always little bits of leaves left at the bottom of the cup, which made drinking the last bit quite unpleasant.

I will admit I was apprehensive at the start, as I'd heard a few horror stories - but I'd also heard a lot of people rave about it, so I decided that the potential benefits outweighed the risks. I took my before pictures and got started. Luckily, I didn't experience any terrible side-effects, but I did seem to be getting a lot more stomach cramps - usually at night. I am really prone to stomach aches anyway, but I'm convinced this was a result of the teatox. If I'm honest, at one point (near the 14 day mark) I did consider stopping because of this, so at times it was quite a significant issue. However, I pushed on and decided I would see it though to the end, mainly because I didn't want to waste my money! In myself, I didn't notice a huge difference as I went along - some days I felt energetic and less bloated and then the next it would be the other way round.

Although it had not been a bad experience, I was glad to see the end of the teatox at the beginning of this week; mainly because I was looking forward to having my cup of Yorkshire tea in the morning again! The day after my last cup of bootea, I took my after pictures. It was only then I noticed the difference this month had made, and I was definitely pleasantly surprised! Below is my before and after pictures; the left hand side is before, and the right hand side after. The results I've achieved are from a combination of the teatox, 2 litres of water per day, no alcohol and exercising 4 times a week. I've also improved my diet slightly, using recipes from Joe Wicks' 'Lean in 15: The Shape plan' book for a lot of my meals. Don't get me wrong, I've not been eating amazingly or anything, just made a few healthier choices.

My final verdict would be that I feel neutral about Bootea. Granted, I am really happy with my results, but I'm not entirely convinced the teatox made a huge difference. I think the water and exercise are mainly to thank, however I do think the Bootea has sped up the toning process and I'm definitely glad I gave it a try. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!

Mental illness: My story

Somewhere deep down, I always knew I was a bit different. I wanted to write about this - my story from start to the present day, because I recently realised that despite my few years of mental health campaigning, I've never written a detailed account of where my passion comes from.

Even as a small child, I suspected that I felt things more deeply than most people of my age. It never took a lot to make me cry and looking back, I'm sure my anxiety levels were much higher than they should have been. Once I was actually diagnosed at the age of 16, my mental health issues were put into the bracket of depression, although they have manifested themselves in a range of different forms over the years. It's kind of been a random mashup of depression, SAD, different types of anxiety and phobias. As I've already mentioned, it started out primarily as anxiety. As a small child I remember having anxiety about going to school - there were days up until being about 8 or 9 where the thought of going would be so upsetting to me. I would occasionally have to be physically carried into school. I suppose this to some extent is quite normal for a young child, but I never really grew out of the anxiety; it just transferred itself to different situations. By the age of about 9 I had developed a complete and utter phobia of buses - more specifically of travel sickness. Travel sickness is something I've always suffered with, but in this situation I think it was a vicious cycle. The anxiety made me feel sick hours or even days before I knew I had to get on a bus, so on the day I thought 'I'm already ill so I definitely can't go on the bus or I'll be more ill'. The next time the memory made the fear even stronger. I got myself so worked up that even on short bus journeys I would often end up being sick.

However, it was only when I started secondary school that my issues really began to interfere with my life regularly. At the beginning of year 7 I got really ill - just being sick all the time. I was so scared of being sick at school and so had a lot of time off in my first term there. I would often get into school but end up throwing up and having to go home. It was a complete mystery illness at the time; I lost a lot of weight but when I went to the doctors, they couldn't find anything wrong. Looking back, it's blatantly obvious to me that it was all anxiety. Deep down, I was terrified of going to school, which was making me feel sick. My mind was telling me that the sickness was causing the anxiety, but in reality is was the other way round. It seems crazy that I had no idea, but I know all too well how your mind can play tricks on you, in an effort to protect you from the truth.

From this, my health continued to steadily decline. It's so strange to think that it never occurred to me that I may actually have a mental illness, when looking back it is so clear; I was incredibly sensitive and in tears almost every day for years. This is why I believe mental health education from a young age is vital, and I will always stick by this belief. Whenever I've brought this up before, teachers have shied away from it because it's deemed as too heavy a topic for very young children. However I believe it doesn't have to be scary; there are ways to present mental health education in an age-appropriate manner. I would also argue that a child growing up as I did, convinced that they are just 'pathetic', is vastly more scary.

At the age of 15, things took a real turn for the worst. A variety of factors really triggered something in me, and I just fell into complete despair. I isolated myself every day and barely even spoke to my friends for about a year. At the worst point, I felt completely detached from my body. It was the weirdest feeling and it's probably hard to imagine unless you've felt it yourself. The best way I can describe it is that it was as though I was floating above my body - not living my life, but just observing it. I couldn't feel anything at all. I could see myself walking around, and hear myself talking, but it wasn't me that was doing it. I think it was my mind's way of trying to protect me from feeling so depressed, but it was counterproductive. For me, feeling nothing was so much worse than feeling awful. Expressing what you feel is how you heal, and not being able to feel what you need to is actually indescribably frustrating. I used to try to make myself cry because I needed to get the emotions out, but I just couldn't make myself feel anything. I was so detached from my own life that I can barely remember that year at all - it's completely lost. My one vivid memory is standing in front of the mirror at college one day and physically jumping, because I didn't recognise my own reflection. I eventually plucked up the courage and went to my GP, because by this point I knew what I was experiencing was not at all normal. However, it was completely brushed off and I was told that every teenager feels this way - it was devastating. I actually wanted something to be wrong; if something was actually wrong with me, measures could be taken to make it better, but if what I was experiencing was deemed as normal, I essentially just had to live with it. I knew in my heart something was seriously wrong, but was so defeated I just buried my head in the sand.

When I was 17, I was suddenly hit with an awful anxiety related to my health. I don't want to go into details about this because, of everything, I actually find this the hardest thing to talk about. It was so strong that it actually caused some of the physical things in my body which I was worried about to happen. This is the one experience that cemented my belief that mental and physical health are so closely connected. My health was constantly on my mind. At about the same time I started getting into strange habits of repeating phrases in my head and touching certain objects at certain times because it temporarily eased my anxiety. I knew logically it made no difference to anything, but it felt as though it 'balanced' things in my head somehow. However the immediate sense of comfort these actions gave me never lasted long, and at the worst point I was doing them hundreds of times a day. It was very easy to hide because it was mostly just silently saying words in my head, but it meant my head always felt 'full', it was so frustrating and impossible to concentrate. This is a habit I managed to cut down on massively, although I still to this day repeat a set of phrases in my head every night before I sleep. It's so ingrained in me that I honestly don't know if I will ever be able to stop doing it - but it doesn't really affect my life much anymore, so it doesn't particularly bother me. Like I said, the anxiety I was experiencing also caused physical symptoms, which just fed the anxiety even further, so it turned into a vicious cycle. It was at this point I decided to go to a different GP, armed with everything I had experienced written down in my phone. I was a lot more prepared and made sure I really put across how miserable these issues were making my life. This time, I was taken seriously; I was diagnosed with depression and prescribed medication - and was already having counselling at school.

Since then, it's been a constant journey and I can honestly say that not a single day has gone by where I haven't learnt something new about myself. I've tried tons of different treatments; medications, counselling, CBT and hypnotherapy to name a few. I've had so many issues with side effects of medications (one of which almost ruined my A-Levels). I've lost count of the number of times I have fought to get myself better and then completely gone back on myself. However, every time it happens, I eventually pick myself up and it strengthens me. I used to get frustrated with myself for letting things slip over and over again, but I've found that a better way of looking at things is from a 'what will be, will be' stance. Taking every day one at a time and trying to stay focused on being well, but not torturing myself if I go downhill again. At the end of the day, falling down and making mistakes are a vital part of the process of learning how to heal. I think mental health issues are often seen as something that somebody gets, recovers from and then it's left behind and forgotten about. From my point of view, I don't believe in that; I think it takes constant work. I don't think there will ever be a day in my life where I don't have to consciously decide to keep working on my health. I think recovery from mental illness is not a destination to be reached, but a constant state of making the right choices for yourself, and of knowing what to do if things do start to decline again. Nowadays I don't really put myself in a bracket of 'this is what I have' and 'these are the clinical symptoms I have', because it's never been that black and white for me. I simply have come to the conclusion that I feel the same feelings as everyone else, it's just that whatever emotion I feel, it's to the extreme. I am either happy as hell or everything is terrible, and every situation that provokes an emotion, that emotion is without fail, so intense. Part of me hates this, but another part of me thinks what a beautiful thing it is to be able to feel everything so deeply. The year where I felt nothing at all makes me - in a strange way - grateful for my excess of emotion now.

At this point in my life, in a strange sort of way, I feel grateful for everything that has happened. It has made me incredibly self-aware, determined and ambitious in a way that I don't think I ever would have been, had I not experienced all of this. Weirdly, it's sculpted me into a much more positive person; I think when you have seen such catastrophic lows, it makes you more grateful for everything that is good in life. Although never in quite as much detail as this, I have told this story so many times now. Each time I feel more comfortable revealing more and more, because as I continually grow I become more at peace with my past. I worry that speaking about this so much makes me look self-absorbed, but I don't tell my story to generate attention for myself. I tell it to generate attention towards mental health. My input is small and although my personal story may not reach many, if it can encourage one other person to be open about their struggles, or to reach out for help if they're struggling right now, then surely it's worth putting it out there. I've always said this, but in a way I feel as though I was dealt this card in life so I could work through it, and then turn it into a positive and help others. I think the sharing of personal stories is one of the most powerful tools in mental health awareness. Sometimes it's hard to put into words how you feel, but the more people who share their experiences, the more likely it is that somebody will read something that strikes a chord with them, and suddenly they will realise they're not alone. If that hope makes me attention-seeking or self-absorbed, then so be it.

Nurturing nature

Nothing fascinates me quite as much as the nurturing power of the outdoors. Having lived in the countryside my entire life so far, I've been brought up constantly surrounded by natural beauty. I mean, living in the sticks definitely has it's downsides, e.g. the pain of £25 taxis after nights out (that's 15 Jägerbombs worth!). Bless my Mam for getting up to give me a lift 9/10 times. However, I wouldn't change where I live for the world.

There's something that's just so calming about being alone in a beautiful, quiet place, surrounded by wildlife and trees. I think getting out of the house and enjoying the outdoors is something we could all benefit from. Personally, though I've always enjoyed the countryside, I didn't realise what a therapeutic effect it had on me until relatively recently. It started out when I would get on my horse and go for a ride to let go of my troubles. This is one of my fondest memories; I would literally just sit and talk to him about my troubles whilst the fresh air blew away my worries. 3 years ago, my horse died and I decided to stop horse riding - this is when I moved on to walking.

I think the thing I love the most about nature and the outdoors is the sense of freedom it evokes. I, as I'm sure a lot of people do, have a terrible habit of sitting and dwelling on my thoughts whilst I'm at home doing nothing. It often leaves me feeling almost trapped in my own head. I noticed a few years ago that going out for a walk really tackles that feeling of being 'pursued' by my own thoughts. Just the act of getting up, sticking in my earphones and going for a short walk can completely change my outlook on life. My favourite place to wander is in the woods and near a beck or stream, as I find the sound of running water incredibly relaxing.  

Sometimes, instead of listening to music along the way, it's nice to go for a mindful walk. Mindfulness essentially means paying close attention to the present moment; sounds, sights, the feel of the ground beneath your feet, and so on. This is a really healthy thing to do as often as possible, as it keeps you grounded in the here and now. Almost all of our worries are rooted either in the past or the future, so to pay close attention to being present in the moment can really ease those fears. Next time you find yourself worrying, ask yourself 'in this precise moment, is anything actually wrong?' the majority of time the answer will be no. Going out and focusing on the beauty that surrounds you can be almost hypnotic, I would even say it's similar to meditation.

I realise of course that I'm incredibly lucky to live in such a quiet and pretty place, but I think going outside and walking, wherever it may be, can be therapeutic. One of my favourite holidays ever was Scotland, the scenery was so breathtaking and I honestly felt so spiritual, balanced and calm for the week we were there, even though my exams were looming! Below is one of the pictures I took on that trip. If you ever find yourself fretting or upset and don't know what to do, don't sit and dwell on things - get up, go for a walk somewhere beautiful and you're sure to come back feeling refreshed and calmed.

Why water is magical

e all know the benefits; it's great for your skin, it helps you concentrate, it flushes out toxins, etc etc. But do we really drink enough water? For many, many years, I certainly didn't. First of all, I really dislike the taste of water - always have done, probably always will. I have never understood how some people argue it has no taste! I'm so fussy about it, I even have preferred taps in the house.

Around four months ago, however, after reading Khloé Kardashian's book and hearing her rave about this simple yet apparently magical liquid - I decided to test things out for myself. I downloaded the app 'water log', which is a really simple yet effective way to keep track of what you're drinking. I set my daily target to 1.5 litres, after researching how much someone my size should have (1.5 litres of 'pure water', that is - not including tea, coffee etc). I was sceptical, because after all, I'd lived the rest of my life drinking literally no pure water at all, and I'd managed. It took a while for me to notice any difference, but after four months of drinking the right amount per day, here are a few things I've noticed. Some are probably what you would expect, but a few came as a surprise to me:

1. Concentration. This has improved leaps and bounds. A ton of factors have meant I've always had real issues with concentration and focus. I've been a sufferer of 'brain fog' for as long as I can remember. It's a very hard thing to explain, but if you know, you know. It suddenly feels as though that cloud has been lifted and I can see things much clearer. I'm convinced it's the water, as well as a healthier diet that has done this. Nowadays, when I don't drink enough or whenever I eat something really unhealthy, I feel that brain fog creeping back.
2. Skin. My skin is definitely a lot brighter now and my skin tone seems more even. I still have spots but I think I probably always will do, mainly due to the fact that I have a bad habit of touching my face when I'm anxious. Nonetheless, my skin still looks so much healthier.
3. Stomach. I'm actually shocked by how much flatter my stomach is! Granted, some of this will be down to exercising a lot more, and more recently the teatox I've been doing, but I feel so much less sluggish and tired now. I've also always been prone to terrible stomach aches that seemed to extend right from my stomach up to my chest, and the frequency of these has reduced massively.
4. Energy. My energy levels have peaked! I've always been a person with very little energy, constantly feeling groggy and exhausted. Now I feel so motivated and have enough energy to go about the day and achieve everything I want to, without feeling drained or needing a nap.
5. Thirst. This is a change I didn't expect. I never realised in the past, but I hardly ever felt thirsty. I honestly think this is because my body got so used to running with very little hydration. Since drinking so much more water, my body has actually started telling me when I haven't drank enough, which I think shows how important it becomes once you're in the habit.
6. Hangovers. They are so much less severe. No need to explain, but for someone who likes a beverage or two like I do, it's amazing.